Famous Men of the Middle Ages

Famous Men of the Middle Ages, by John H. Haaren with A. B. Poland, continues the same series of elementary readers and tells medieval history through short lives of rulers, warriors, and other leading figures. It opens with the gods of the Teutons and the story of the Nibelungs, then follows the fall of the Roman world through Alaric the Visigoth, Attila the Hun, Genseric the Vandal, Theodoric the Ostrogoth, and Clovis. Justinian, Mohammed, Charles Martel, Pepin, and Charlemagne carry the story through the rise of Islam, the defense of western Europe, and the making of the Frankish empire, with Harun al-Rashid set beside Charlemagne as a ruler of the East.

The rest of the book moves across Europe and beyond from the ninth century to the fifteenth. Egbert, Rollo, Alfred the Great, Henry the Fowler, Canute, the Cid, Edward the Confessor, and William the Conqueror mark the shaping of England, Normandy, and Spain. Peter the Hermit, Frederick Barbarossa, Henry II and his sons, Louis IX, Robert Bruce, Marco Polo, and the Black Prince cover the Crusades, feudal conflict, and travel to Asia. The later chapters turn to William Tell, Tamerlane, Henry V, Joan of Arc, Gutenberg, and Warwick the Kingmaker, ending near the close of the Middle Ages. As in the Greek and Roman volumes, the writing is plain narrative for young readers, and each chapter uses one famous life to hold a stretch of history in place.